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Walt Disney World Monorail Crash Lawsuit Dismissed

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- A lawsuit against Walt Disney World following a deadly monorail crash in July 2009 has been dismissed.

Austin Wuennenberg, 21, was killed when a monorail train backed into the front of the train he was driving.

Details of the dismissal were not made public.

"The case has been settled to the parties' satisfaction. The terms of the settlement are confidential," said Walt Disney World spokesman Bryan Malenius.

Austin's mother, Christine Wuennenberg, filed a civil suit against the park in January 2010, saying the monorail manager on duty that night intentionally concealed his whereabouts and did not let employees know he could not see what was going on.

She said in court documents that monorail manager David Gilmore ?masqueraded? as if he was in the concourse tower on site.

In reality, Gilmore was miles away at a Perkins restaurant off of Disney property, which he admitted in an interview with the NTSB.

Wuennenberg said Gilmore chose to leave the tower empty, and relay commands from a restaurant while not letting the drivers know they were ?flying blind.?

Had Gilmore been in the tower, Christine Wuennenberg said he would have seen that his orders put the pink monorail on a collision course with the purple train piloted by her son.

She also claimed Disney does not crash test monorail cockpits and it does not build in frames or bracing to help them withstand collisions.

In its own filings, Disney said the monorail shop panel operator performs the procedure required to move the switch beams, and that the morning of the July 5 accident, the shop operator incorrectly reported the position of the beams.

In August 2010, Disney announced changes to its monorail staffing in the wake of the crash.

The company said it would hire Central Monorail Controllers to oversee traffic on all monorail tracks.

That person's job is to focus solely on watching the trains instead of having other tasks to perform.

Prior to the new position, control of the monorail rotated between a group of monorail coordinators.

In the proposal, Disney said the Central Monorail Controller would earn $3 an hour higher than the current pay scale ceiling for veteran monorail employees.

In 2009, OSHA fined Disney $44,000 for serious safety violations related to the crash. That fine was later lowered to $35,200.

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